Survival Art Online: A Sword Art Online rewrite
by CrimsonKiryu
Summary: Hello everyone, this is a project of mine where i set for a reconstruction of the world of Sword Art Online, maintaning its premise and characters, but changing the rest for a overall more cohesive and more developed story, with a focus on the survival in a hostile world aspect (hence the changed title), hope you enjoy reading as much i enjoy writing it.
1. Chapter 1: Prologue

**Author's Note: **Hello all, here I will share a few more details about the way I will write this fic: First of all, there will be big changes about the world construction and characters, mainly for plot fixing/improving and to better fit the type of story that I want to tell, but the overall plot will pass just small changes, and again, to better suit the type of story I want to tell. Without further ado, there it is and I hope you enjoy it, feedback will always be appreciated!

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Hello, my name is Kazuto Kirigaya, better known as "Kirito", and my story is on Earth. The Earth of the year 2088, the previously predicted collapse of humanity never happened, rather the opposite, and then areas previously natural and untouched now gave up to habitation, and not even the seas and oceans escaped unharmed. Now there is nothing new to explore, Earth had been entirely colonized and space exploration still remains a distant dream, but in the end, birth rates fell sharply and consequently the population as well, to the number of 4.5 billion people, but the damage had already been done, and even if nature totally returns to its former glory, everything is already known, there isn't nothing new to explore.

This is my world. More precisely the outskirts of the district of Akihabara, in Tokyo, Japan, where I live. I am more known by my online friends by the nickname "Kirito" (a junction of my two names), and I am 19 years old, a NEET (Japanese term for people who can't get a job, spending most of their time at home, usually at the expense of their parents/relatives) in every sense of the term, my looks included, which I never cared much; 1,72 m tall with a skinny, slightly muscular body, straight black medium-sized hair with a messy haircut, black eyebrows, half-open, tired eyes (most likely for spending whole nights awake playing on my PC) with dark pupils, a rather inexpressive slim mouth, and a chin covered by a small beard. Most of the time I just wear shorts and a t-shirt, or a dark grey hoodie, navy blue jeans, and old Nike shoes when I am not home, and in these rare occasions, I just stay quiet, walking fast and talking only when necessary, surely not a social butterfly, but back in home, when my older sister Suguha, from who I own everything, I do whenever I can to make her happy.

She is 24 years old, a very successful woman, she works for a company that develops and sells a new OS for computers and servers designed for big companies, and her became a key member of it, obviously is paid well, and with it, she sustains herself, me and our home, modest-sized, but it has a kendo training room in the back.

It was from our mother... Her name was Midori Kirigaya, and I don't remember much of my father, he died in a car accident when I was 2 years old, and then my mother of cancer when I was 13, I still miss her, but it was tougher for my sister... she had to start to work to sustain both of us when she had barely started her college period, and after that she started to treat me more like she was my mother, taking care of me pretty well, and she downright refuses my offerings to find a job to help her, she says "Kazuto, please follow your dreams, I am more than happy to work in your place to help you to do so". There also was that time when she kissed me on my 18th birthday, but she doesn't like to remember that, and neither I. Her personality is a glaring contrast of mine, she always is very energetic, lovely, talkative and helpful in her job, but here she likes to relax, being quiet and calm.

Her appearance surely calls the attention of the people around her, having 1,76m, black medium hair with a Chanel haircut and 3 decorative red clips in the top right side of the head, slim black eyebrows, feminine eyes with dark green pupils, and slim lips always smiling, and a nice body, I'll admit. When working, she wears a light office attire, and in home, she just wears a white sleeveless shirt, black shorts and green crocs, or a red robe with pink sleepers when it's cold, and her kendo outfit when training, which its her favorite hobby, she trained since she was a child by the influence of our grandfather and always was quite good at it, even winning some third and second places in championships across Japan when she was younger. She also tried to make me went into it after his death, it is an interesting sport and I kinda like to train with her when she calls for my company in the training room, but eh, not for me.

However, when Suguha is working, I am totally dedicated to my main hobby, online gaming. It's what the I love the most in this world and what I always did since young, firstly heavily monitored by my sister, but then she started to work hard and gave me a PC for my studies, I jumped straight up to online gaming, more precisely MMO Action RPGs, my favorite genre. There i could be the person that I could never be in real life, having both friends and admirers, my strength and speed wasn't limited by my body, only my will, and most importantly, I could be truly free to make my own destiny.

The world in most MMOs were that way, huge, open and surrounded by nature and fantastical elements and creatures, where I and others could work and battle our way into greatness while living a natural life while cooperating and having relations with each other, totally different of the harsh reality, whose most of us lives anti-social lives in closed cities without any contact with the nature, and only here I can have the life I want. So, I spend most of my time on my PC playing these games and the rest talking with my friends from these games.

However, today I'm going to stay away from my PC, me and my sister are going to the center of Akihabara since she promised to buy to me some new parts to his PC and we're also gonna see some figures. But first, she needs to go fix some quick issues in her job, so here I am in the hobby waiting for her, but unfortunately dumb me left my phone in home charging, so the only thing left for me is to read one of these tech magazines they left here... They still make those? Anyway, let's pick the most recent one, and right in the cover, what we have here, the NervGear?

I had heard of this before. Supposedly, this is a new VR headset made by a company that had some expertise developing neural analysis tech and it works in a totally different manner than the previous headsets. Rather than having screens and headphones to simulate the world and sensors and motion controllers to register the player inputs, the NervGear makes everything work connecting itself to the players brain, capturing the brain commands to the body (making the user unable to move while using it) and translating them to game inputs for the PC running the game, then takes the game audiovisual feedback and sends it to the brain, who interprets this as signs coming from the eyes, ears, nose and even skin, creating the perfect illusion... (and making its competitors obsolete) Ok, here it talks about the developing process, how they thought of putting a battery for wireless play but it was very unreliable and had to be taken off, it also talks about the first year of the NervGear in the market, how it was performing kinda bad and below the creators expectations, but despite some would think, it was not the price point that was holding it back, huh, it was the lack of good software developed exclusively for it, but this was close to change, since there was a game being developed for it all the way back off the development process of the own NervGear, being headed by a legendary developer, and it was his biggest project since then. His name? Kayaba Akihiko. The game? Survival Art Online, a MMO Action RPG.

Ok, I wasn't expecting that, at least, not this soon, his games are the fucking best, and I was expecting what he would do next, and apparently, is this! But it was hard to know, he rarely appear and tells what he is doing. But I did knew he left his first company for "creative reasons" and form his own, and it seems then he started to work with the NervGear company two years back, and also announced the start of development of his so-called "dream project", Survival Art Online. It will be a MMO Action RPG with survival elements set in a fantasy world with both medieval and futuristic elements mixed within, and in his own words, "to create a whole new experience to the players, yet remind them of the times long past when men was one with nature and worked together with the others to overcome all odds and create communities, and with the immersion level that only the NervGear can provide, it will be the ultimate survival cooperative game."

Yeah, I need this game in my hands, and now, I couldn't think that would ever be possible to exist a game that will have everything I always wanted, but there you go! But wait, here the article says the game still has at least one more year of development before launch. Unless, of course, I can become a beta tester of the game, of course! And the article also says "the devs are looking for skilled players for the task, especially the ones with high rankings and experience in other MMORPGs" oh, this just keeps getting better, I am in the Top 30 players of my main game, piece of cake. So, this is it, now I just need a NervGear and a way to include myself in the beta testing crew, and maybe, just maybe, this might also pay well and I could pay a little of my endless debt with big sis for all she made for me, but first, I need someone who can put me there, and I think I know someone... And 'bout that, here finally comes my sister. -Sorry for the waiting Kazuto, the guys really didn't want me to get off that office, but let's go now, what store do you want to go first? -Y'know sister, I was thinking with myself here and I concluded that I really don't need those parts now, my PC is still high tier and I still can live with him some more years just fine. -Ok, what's the catch here, little brother? -So, I was looking into that new VR headset, the NervGear, and also came to conclusion I really need one now. -Why the interest now? When I was telling you that my company started working with them providing the OS for their servers, you weren't that interes- -I also need a favor from you. -Oh, can't say I wasn't expecting that, tell me what you need that only your big sis here can provide! -Since you are working with them, can you ask them a favor to put me in the beta testing of their next game, pretty please? -I will do my best. So, you know where can we buy one of these here? - I am without my phone, remember? -Oh yeah…


	2. Chapter 2: The Trial Part 1

**11:30 AM, Akihabara, Tokyo, 14 of April, 2088;**

Today is the day.

Some days past, I received an e-mail from the company saying that I passed into their trial and now I am one of their beta testers, and with that, now I'm standing at the front of the door with some package on my feet, that is the special copy of the game for the beta testers, and now it's gonna be my first experience with the NervGear. I go up to my room, and quickly start up my PC and install the game, with a message saying I was ready to start the NervGear and play the game. With that, I quickly became a little hesitant to use it, slowly laying on my bed and putting the NervGear in my head. About his design, it is a bit bigger than a Coco helmet and very clean in design with a gray color, with very few connectors to talk about, just two Thunderbolt 9 connectors, one for power and the other one for the connection with the PC. It also has a cover for the eyes, probably so external light won't mess up with the NervGear visual feedback, and it also combines with the design of the device.

But that's enough delaying, let's jump right off into it, so I turn the switch on the side on, and right of the bat I can feel my senses going away to be replaced with a unreal serenity and tranquility for a time, than my senses slowly start to come back until I realize that I am in a completely new place apart from reality. This is the main square of Aincrad, the starting point of the game. And in that same moment, I became overwhelmed by my senses, with my eyes seeing an incredible amount of details in every corner and a lot of different types of materials used for the buildings and streets in the city, my ears hearing some people spawning into the area alongside me and also in awe of the world while some others stood in this square are excitedly talking with each other, and all of sounds of nature composing this ambiance of joy, my skin feeling the heat of the sun and the breeze of the wind at the same time, giving this refreshing sensation, and the most impressive, my nose can feel every single smell emanating from every single place. In the real world, my nose can feel only the strongest smells and everything else just goes unnoticed, to a point where I saw some sensitive people succumbing to strong smells while I was practically unaffected by it. This alongside some other small details were contributing to the feeling of slight weirdness that was upon me, that something isn't right, for example, I was breathing, but only by costume than the actual need of it. Maybe it's intentional, since it would may be weirder if it was exactly like the real life. I also noticed that my body in this game is incredibly similar to my real body, except it really isn't, I appear to be somewhat taller, around 1,78m and with a more defined musculature, but this might be part of the system for the players not be recognized by others in real life, by letting them be a more idealized version of themselves. And for now, I don't have a way to see my face, but by the tactile feel seems like it's also close enough. Looking at my body, I see I'm wearing some light combat clothes typical of these type of MMOs, consisting of a dark blue long shirt, a basic silver armor plate on my chest with a clip on the back to hold my basic iron sword in place, a brown leather belt on my hips carrying a hunting knife and some basic packages, a dark brown leather pants with boots, the works. But even looking at myself doesn't make the feeling of slight weirdness go away...

I try to put away these thoughts while I see a projection of someone appear in the sky in front of all the beta testers, and I notice all thirty-five of us are here, and I realize that is probably an announcement from the company. The projection finishes forming itself, and the silhouette of Kayaba Akihiko forms upon us. -Hello my friends, and the first citizens of Aincrad, be very welcome into this world. Below your feet is the central point of this city, called Anfänglich (meaning "initial" in German) the spawn square, and each time fate claims your virtual life, you will reborn here, ready to restart your adventure, and around you are the main city of this world, with the majority of the stores, NPC's and hotels, ready for some guests. And most importantly, behind you, in the end of this city, are the walls that lock up the Black Aincrad Tower, the final dungeon of this game. But for the doors of it to open, the other dungeons localized in all the other 25 planes of this world, with each one having its own fauna, flora, cities and set of enemies, need to be cleared, and they will only become accessible when the previous floor dungeon be cleared. Now, in this first day, what we devs ask of you, bold first citizens of Aincrad, is to go and explore at your leisure this world we created for you all, in the next day we will start the beta testing, and with that, I say goodbye and good luck to all of you. And with that, his silhouette disappears into thin air and in no time, I found myself running in the city into the plains, where freedom and combat with wild beasts await us.

After some time exploring the plains, I see in some meters in front of me, a wild boar clearly looking at me, one of the initial enemies in the game, luckily it will not be hard to take down. It growls and starts running in my direction while I remember some of the basic slash lessons from kendo to take it down and in the nick of time, I dodged his head and ripped out the side of its thorax. Strangely enough, I didn't notice any blood come out of it, and when I look back, I see the wild boar fall into the ground, and in the place where I cut its body, there was a blue glowing line in its place, and the boar stayed there, like his body was inviting me to come closer, then I realized I would have to cut him down to get his parts, just like I would have to do in a real animal, but luckily it will not end with me covered in blood and guts. So I crouched in front of its belly, got the hunting knife and performed a automatic animation, that afterwards got rid of the boar's corpse, only leaving behind some boar meat, bones for weaponry and 80 bronze coins, then immediately a message in my head told I had gained 40 XP points, and 460 XP points left for my next level up. Wow, the way this game connects with me is unlike anything else, and with that I decide to sit on a rock and mess around with the game commands. In a typical MMO, this would be composed with tons of menus and visual options, which is a bore to go through, while here, it's so simple, you just have to think about it, and most of the things just happen, but you can call up a virtual menu to select the most complex options. For example, I thought of equipping one of the boar bones as a weapon, and immediately it came out of my virtual inventory and materialized in my hand in an attack position, right after I thought of putting it back on my inventory and the bone disappeared from my hand and I got a message that the bone was added in my inventory. After a half hour messing with these thought-based controls, I was quite familiarized with them and I came back to the exploration of these plains and fighting with the wild beasts.

About that, these plains seem to be quite large, since I didn't get to have a direct encounter with any of the other beta testers, but I can see some of them here from a higher ground. The view is also breathtaking, the vegetation presents itself in a large number of vibrant colors, and an equally large number of different types of plants, flowers and trees, each one releasing its unique type of smell into the atmosphere, and that combined with the incredibly clean air and blue skies creates a feeling of connection with the nature in a way that I never thought I would feel like it. I would say that I would love to live in this world, but unfortunately, it's not real. I spend a few more hours in plains and share a few words with some other beta testers before the night ingame fell and I disconnected myself from the game, which is pretty easy, you just have to press your two fingers in the top side of your head, kinda like you were pressing a button on the NervGear while using it. And with that, it took me the same process to use the NervGear, only in reverse. I was back in my room, and I went downstairs into the kitchen to see what I would have for dinner to see my sister eating some sushi rolls and she offered me some when noticed me. -Was about time you coming back to our world, I was starting to get a bit worried. How the experience was? -Well, I think overwhelming and out of this world are the most fitting terms to describe it. -That's a way to put it. So, c'mon, take a seat with me and relax a little, you know that is a bit rare to see me in home. -In that subject, you never thought of giving up on the job to spend your time with me and practicing kendo? -I would love to, but there are a couple reasons why I don't. First, I have to support myself, you and this home, and the money in the bank account isn't sufficient for that, not even close, second, I'm still too young to quit and I kinda like my job, probably I would quit if I didn't. Maybe if you could help me out financially, I could quit earlier. -If that's the case... I'll like to inform you that I will receive a little payment for my work as beta tester, but I will have bonuses for every glitch, and I know well how to find them. -Oh really? My little brother is finally becoming a man and helping his older sister out, I'm so proud of you now! But better find all those bugs to bring a big buck for us! -Well, maybe there aren't that many, after all it's not a Bethesda game. -Well, I'm just happy in seeing you working in what you love; it's all I wanted from you. -Thanks sister, it really means a lot to me. -Now let's go to sleep, it's late. No, no overnight play today. -Ohhhhhh...


	3. Chapter 3: The Trial Part 2

**Akihabara, Tokyo, 15 of April, 2088;**

Then, in the next day, I woke up earlier than usual, already excited to return to the world of SAO, to start the beta testing, but to much of my dismay, the servers were still off, so I had to spend some time doing other stuff, but all the time I was thinking about the game, mostly about how amazing it would be if we could live in it all the time like it was the real thing. Yeah, but this is just my imagination working overtime... The servers luckily are on now, time to log in...

This time I was granted by the usual stuff I already saw in the first time here, but when all the beta testers logged in, the projection of Kayaba Akihiko showed shortly after and he very carefully explained us about the beta testing, how it should be done and the game rules. About an hour later, he finally gave us permission to proceed with the testing and we all run in different directions hoping to find some bugs open out in the wild, but I know what I should do to find them. I firstly went to the nearest mountain and tried to glitch my way inside it, after half an hour of many tries and a body full of dirt and pain, I managed to do it and called the devs for help, getting my first bonus of hopefully, many to come. So, a day and a few more minor glitches found, the playtime was over as well as the day itself. This time my sister wasn't there to be with me, as well as Kayaba wasn't there to pass the instructions to the testers in the next day, rather one of the minor devs with a script in hand. When asked about Kayaba, he simply replied "he is working on an important part of the game and can't be here at this time anymore;" which sounded a bit suspicious but we had no choice but to let it pass. Then the 15 days of the beta testing were over in a nick of time, and I had just fallen in love with Aincrad, every detail of the world, the architecture of the cities and villages I visited, the omnipresence and variety of the nature, the 10 first planes we got access to visit, the feeling of freedom and overcoming the challenges the world threw at me... But now all of that was over, at least till the game launches, yet the all the money I made beta testing the game was a nice compensation, (although I heard a dude and some girl were able to do more than I did) and I couldn't wait to show that to my sister and see her getting proud.

-Really Kazuto, 110.000 yen? That's about a fourth of what I make a month in my job, excellent work, little brother, I'm so proud of you right now! -And it fills my heart with joy hearing this of you, big sis. I really wanted to make you proud of me doing what I like. The sad part is, the beta testing is over and I don't think I can make any more money until the game releases, and when it releases, I want to fully dedicate myself to it. -It's fine little brother, what you made already is pretty good and I will continue to work for us both like always. But didn't you want to work in something else after this? -Maybe, I'm not sure... I'll think of something in this meantime. -Don't be melancholic like this Kazuto, I'm not charging you to do something you don't want to, it's just... I see so much potential in you, I know you can do great things and the close future will be the perfect time for you to explore this potential and I would hate to see it go to waste. I... love you, Kazuto. -I love you too, Suguha. -Now I'll have to turn off, my meal break time is almost over, bye bye little brother. -Bye bye big sis.

That's all I wanted to hear. My sister being really proud of me. For all she made for me, she deserves the world and then some and I think I'll never be able to repay this debt, however seeing her happy like this is a great sign that I'm in the right track and from now on its smooth sailing. Well, but what can I do now...? Waiting seems the only choice, but that's the worst part. Getting back to my old life until the game comes, except things will not be the same, ever again.

But time do passes, and then I was contacted by the devs, offering the chance to play the game again, in the major online testing of the game, where 10.000 people from all across Japan, will have the chance to play earlier while the devs will test the servers capabilities, and they needed the experienced beta testers to help these who might have problems with the game systems. I obviously accepted the offer and was already marking on the calendar the initial day of testing, 06 of July of 2088, a day where I could finally return to the world I fell in love with. Well, now I just recalled that the game will use our muscular memory for the combat moves, so better take a few kendo training sessions with my sister in the meantime...


	4. Chapter 4: The Fated Day

**Akihabara, Tokyo, 06 of July, 2088;**

\- Kazuto, *yaaaawn*, why you woke up so early, still is 5 in the morning, usually I'm the one to wake up first... -Yeah, but it was hard for me to sleep due to the anticipation of playing SAO again. -You should get some sleep Kazuto; the servers will only open at afternoon which still is a long time till that, no need for hurry. -I know that, but this is what hype does to us, sis. And you're right, i should go back to sleep, so as you. -Ok little brother, just calm down a bit, okay? Love you. *yaaaawn* -Love you too big sis.

Well, and here I go, try to get some more sleep, but I know it won't happen, I just can't stop thinking about the game. Like, I was looking to the volunteering numbers for the online beta, and the speed these filled up was insane, and reminding that you need a NervGear to play it makes the situation even crazier, so the future of both SAO and the NervGear looks much brighter.

Okay, 9 hours later, let's finally open the site and install this baby again... Logging in, putting my special account, now it's installing... And while my PC does his thing, I will lay on my bed and put the NervGear, and with luck, I will be the entire day off, lost in the world of Aincrad, for many more days t-...

.

.

...Oh, here we are, I missed this place so much... But that's a new sight, there's much more people here than the beta testing, and it's getting crowded, better move on to the plains then. Ah, better now, let's find a wild boar to start the grind and... Wait, why that guy is calling me, I don't even know him, well, let's carefully see what he wants..

-So, you are a beta tester, right? -Ah yes, but how do you know that? -Ah, that's easy, you guys are marked to help those who need a bit of help with the game. -And that's your case, I presume. -Yes, my name is Klein, pleasured to meet you. -I'm Kirito, the pleasure is mine. So, what do you need from me? -Nothing complex, just the best way to attack these animals, for now they're getting the best of me. -I see, so, Klein, what you need to do is to avoid their heads and slash them sideways, so you can put them down without harm. Here, I'll show you. With that said, I rush towards one wolf that was coming to us, dodged his head and then made a nice cut into his ribs and belly, killing him. -See, just do this and you will be fine for now, but remember that the higher-level enemies will have more strategies to put you down and you must react accordingly. -Just that? -Actually no, see that the wolf's body still is laying there? If you want to take the battle rewards apart from the XP points, you have to go to the body, crouch in front of it and cut away all the meat and bones you'll need, like this. -Oh I see, okay then, I think I'll be fine now. Hey, do you mind a little company for a while, my friends are still to connect in the game, and I think this time would be better spent learning a few things with you. -Fine, as long you don't get in the way. And while we walk to a area with more enemies, I could get a better look into my new "friend". Klein is quite tall, having about 1,89m, with the body type being similar to my own, long orange hair, brown eyes, wearing a red bandana and a small beard around his jaw with a small smile in his mouth, looking like a aspiring rockstar, and wearing clothes similar to mine, as everybody else is, but with a dark red shirt instead of my dark blue.

And after some hours of training, noticing that he made way too many questions about basic game mechanics, a question for him comes into my mind. Can I make you a question? -Shoot. -What made you interested in this game? I ask you because you don't seem the type that plays MMOs. -Oh, I thought it would be a more personal question. Okay, you're right in your assumption, I don't play MMOs, but this one doesn't seem to be in the same breed as these other games. I and my friends like to play tabletop RPGs together, especially the survival kind, so this is the game that we been waiting on for so long; at least I've been having fun with it. -I see. Well, I've been attracted to this game by similar reasons, so I can say you will like it, this system isn't something you can find in other MMOs. -You seem to be a nice guy, but for now I'll have to leave, it's around the time I'll go for a lunch, so, how do I log out? -It's easy; you just press two fingers at the side of your head like a button and voilà! -Okay... Are you sure, it's not working... -Yes, I am, it's just press like this and... What? It's not working for me too, but that's the way, I'm sure of it! I know there's an option for it too in the game menu, okay... Where is it, it was supposed to have an option here too, what the hell? What a weird bug, I think we will have to call for a moderator to solve this... But when I barely finished my statement, a blue glow, indicator of a teleportation process, formed around not only around me and Klein, but also a few other players that I could see from a distance, and teleported we were, to the central square in the game, alongside all other players in the game. And the first thing I noticed was that Klein had changed. Instead of the long hair, he now had a shorter, messier one at the front and longer in the back, held by a ponytail, alongside changes in some minor face details, and when he saw me and said, -Why you are shorter now?, I understood that the system that changed us for avoid recognition had been disabled, and the game now was showing us just like we are in real life, everything is happening now is very weird. -And you are with shorter hair, I suppose this how you look in real life. -Wait, I am? Oh shit, I am! Why is this happening? I don't know for now, but the fact all of the players were brought here, means we will have an answer so- Then I noticed a huge cloaked figure forming upon us just like the devs did in the beta testing period, and despite the deeper tone in his voice, I instantly recognized the voice of Kayaba Akihiko. Oh no...

-Hello my friends, I must thank you all for participating in this online testing of Survival Art Online, and becoming citizens of Aincrad. I am Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of this MMO. I reunited you all here for a few important news. The tagline of SAO was "the ultimate survival experience", and I and my colleagues fully dedicated our work to deliver such experience. But it wasn't enough. For the true survival instinct and the need for cooperation to appear, there must be a true fear and possibility of death. So I've took over the control of SAO, you all are now permanently part of this world, so no need for disguises and safety nets, and as we speak, I released a note to the media informing of this, and the danger of trying to end this experience by taking off the NervGear. I helped to develop it, so I introduced a program where the NervGear will destroy your brain by flooding it with garbage data in a second if someone tries to forcefully take it off or end the program, and the same will happen if you die in the game, only this way you all will have the experience of true survival against all odds that you were expecting for. But the wanted system, where players who attempt to murder other players will be marked as such, will stay, this world won't allow murderers. Those who stayed in the real world and are responsible for your wellbeing will have 30 minutes where they can disconnect you from the servers to put you all in a safe place where you can keep playing, any more time and my program will act. This will only end when the Black Aincrad Tower, the last dungeon of the game, is completed, and to whoever gets to be the biggest contributor for such task, will meet me at the end of the game, but for that to happen, all the other dungeons in the other planes must be finished first. That's all for now and good luck for all of you, Citizens of Aincrad, you will need it.

Oh my god, this is far worse than anything I could think of, if I want to live, I must act quickly, so I dragged Klein to a alleyway close to the square with a very serious expression to explain my plan to him. -Holy shit Kirito, did you heard that, was he talking for real? -I'm afraid that's the case Klein, but listen now what I have to say, this is why I brought you here. Then I looked to the side, to see if anyone had followed us, but luckily this wasn't the case. -We need to get away from here now, I'm sure you can already hear the pandemonium that formed in that square, people will die in the middle of it, it's the most unsafe place to be right now, and that's not all, I'll give at best half a hour before a lot of people run from here directly to the plains, so they can forcefully grind in order to have a chance of survival and there will be nothing to us. What we must do is rush to at least the next village, where hopefully there will be much less people and much more chances of better grinding, then keep moving once our level gets to a desired point. This seems very serious, and I don't want to have your blood in my hands. –Thanks for the help, but I can't go with you now. –Why not? What do you mean? –I'm sure by this point my friends have connected into this game and now are into that hell, and I just can't let them be there at their own, they need my help. -Are you sure of it? –Completely. –Fuck… So I'll help you with it. –No, you must go, this is my problem now and I don't want your blood on my hands, now go, I'll try to follow you when I find them!

So this is it, now I'm running towards the plains and beyond that, since my life depends on it and this world has now gone to hell… I should gone help Klein, but he said it was his problem, and I should go, but if that's the case, then why I feel so goddamn bad for it? No time to think about it now, there are enemies charging at me right now and I need to send them to the higher plane, slash after slash comes from my hands directly to their flesh, and their cries of agony mixed with similar ones coming from the town mean nothing to me, now my mind is filled with rage and frustration as I eviscerate their bodies for their meat, the dream of living here turned into a nightmare that I cannot wake up from, the punchline of a sick joke, and reminding myself of it just makes the pain worse, the automatic messages reminding me of XP, items gained and even the usual level up, the reason I came here, are now just annoying voices in my head, all I want to do is to cry and scream, yet I keep pushing forward with a clear goal in my head, and I can see the village approaching, but suddenly, I… feel so… tired…, I have to reach at least that big tree… to have a place to rest a bit… before moving on…

And then, I blacked out.


	5. Chapter 5: Dawn Of A New Day

Author's Note: Sorry for the long wait to this new chapter, but I had a few problems that prevented to finish this chapter earlier, but finally, here it is, and remember that comments are what pushes me to go on, so please, give it your opinion on the fic and comment!

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**Aincrad (1st Plane), 07 of July, 2088;**

I woke up, with the sunlight shining over my face, to a new day, in Aincrad. Unfortunately what happened to me wasn't a bad nightmare, it was real… and reminding how I came up to my actual state was confusing, why did I blacked out, I was tired but not enough for it, the game would force me to lay down and regain breath, but I would still be conscious during it. Oh, I get it; Kayaba mentioned in his speech that he would allow up to 30 minutes of disconnection for us to get moved to a better place in real life, likely a hospital and then I blacked out because of the disconnection, and when the game resumed, the facts that was night, my high level of fatigue and I already was in a safe area made me sleep instantaneously. And for the better or worse, I'm alive here, ready for the next day, it appears to be around 7:30 AM and it also seems that my beta tester status is gone, which is good, so I don't have a bunch of newbies following me thinking I have to babysit them throughout the game.. Oh, the village is right there, and luckily for me, it appears that we have very few people here, the great majority are NPCs. And the teleport point, which would allow people in other cities to teleport to this one but has to be manually activated by a player to work, is still deactivated, and I won't blame the others for not activating it, since I won't do it as well. I may sound like a asshole by the comments I made, but that's not a time to be sympathetic. When the others calm down their heads and start to tackle down dungeons, I'll be more than happy to help, until then... Hmm, my inventory is okay in food and equipment, but I need to buy some healing items in the store and cook all this meat to be possible to eat. I could just go for more grinding but I remembered that not far from here, is the Dark Forest area, with a subquest to get a new blade, I remember one of the beta testers actually did it in the testing period, but only for bug hunting. So, at the middle of the way, where I was lighting a fire to cook the meat, I hear a voice calling me: -Hey, I recognize you, you were a beta tester too, uhh... Kirito, right? -Yes, and you are...? -Don't you remember, we talk for a bit in the second day of testing, I'm Coper! -Ah yes, now I remember a bit, nice to see you again. -Nice to see you too.

Coper was also a beta tester of SAO, and one of those I remember the most, for having similar traits to my own. He is 1,62m, 16 years old, has quite short blond hair with black eyes, thick eyebrows and no facial hair, a skinny body wearing the basic equipment with a muted tone of beige. And he seems to be enjoying himself here, despite the grim tone that now envelops this world.

So, seems like you're going for the Anneal Blade subquest, right? -You are correct. And I suppose you're going too. Well, *sigh* ...two heads does thought better than one, if you want the help that is. -Don't worry, it would be great for us to do this together, especially with a fellow beta tester... Do you remember the rules of this subquest? -Uhhh, if I'm remembering this correctly, we are supposed to find the correct subspecies of the Killer Plants that will reveal the blade while the others are very likely to spawn more plants. -Yes, but we also have to find their oasis in the middle of deep forest, which is easier said than done. But I remember the basic directions.

So now we were heading towards the deep forest, leaving behind the green plains and their beauty of tall grass, blue skies, beautiful flowers of many types and harmless bushes for the maze of tall dark trees covered by moss, the ground covered by fog and a carpet of dead leaves with a overall very creepy atmosphere, and the animals that inhabit this area are mostly the same ones found in the plains, but now they have the upper hand in here, this is their hunting ground. After around 20 minutes wandering around the fog in the deep forest, we finally found a glade with a clear sign that here is the home of the Killer Plants, since lots of their spiked tentacles were clinging to the nearby trees and we could see some of their heads in the distance. Instinctively, I got behind one of the trees but then remembered one of the devs stating that "the Killer Plants don't have eyes so they can't see the players, but can detect them by noise and feel." But Coper didn't seem to know that, since he was actively hiding behind a bush. I sighed and said in a low tone: -So, it would be dumb to attack right away, but if I'm remembering it right, the prized enemy won't spawn until we start the quest, aka attack them, right? -Y-Yeah. -What do you suggest for us to do then? -I... Don't know, let's wait a bit for a opening, okay? -Hmph, if you say... But maybe, that's a fixed number of enemies we need to kill for the Plant with the blade to appear, yeah, it makes sense, since a high random spawn could really screw up a low-level player. Luckily, I bought a flammable bomb before coming up here, and it will be handy for our task, if I throw it just right, it might be able to hit and then kill most enemies here, and even if it's not enough for the number required of kills, it will let us close enough for it and in a much more comfortable position and here it goes...

Bam! The bomb goes perfectly, and hits almost all of enemies, that start burning down immediately, letting go horrible shrieks of pain, that beforehand I would thought impossible of plants to make. But then I just said to Coper: -Let's go kill some more Killer Plants, and keep an eye on the prized one! -Ok! Jumping head on first, I lit my sword on fire with the juice of one of the burning Killer Plants and went towards the ones that didn't got caught by the fire to give them a taste of hell, their first reaction was to try to bite me, but to no avail, I was expecting just that, and when all were down for the count, something happened. A unexpected slash from above almost crushes me, and would be certainly game over for me if I didn't got out of the way in the nick of time. Wait, are these... Silver spikes on the vine? And the teeth of this one are also silver, looks like we found what we were looking for, but also looks like this one won't go down without a good fight. Well, can't say I wasn't expecting otherwise, let's do this! First, I just cut off the vine that tried to crush me while the plant sends another in my way, I avoid it, using the movement of my body to get up my sword and slashing away the other vine, continuing to the torso of the plant, where multiple strikes made its head fall off and the mouth open with the ground impact, revealing the prized sword, unfortunately covered by the plant fluids.

But just when I merely touched it, I heard a scream besides my back: -Die monster, ha ha! Oh, fuck me… Coper just attacked a red Killer Plant, this is the one that will call many others when it dies, and as I think this, the plant just lets it out a scream of warning, and many other start appearing from the shadows, ready to attack us, we have to get out of here now, or the plants coming will overwhelm us in no time, and one already puts itself on my way to the exit, I have to take care of it quickly, but as I attack it, a question comes to my mind: Where is Coper? And a quick look around where he is nowhere to be seen confirms my suspicions that he attacked that Red Killer Plant deliberately, so the plants that spawned would do the dirty job and leave the Anneal Blade for him, now I just have to find him to teach him a lesson... Aha! Hiding well behind that bush, but making too much noise, he forgot that the Killer Plants orient themselves by noise and touch rather than vision, which they don't have, and I can see three of them already closing on him, totally unnoticed. I could just let them kill him, but then he wouldn't learn the lesson. Rushing to there and three good slashes, the plants are pushed back as i push him away, back to the dark forest, and as we run back to the city I don't say a single word, even when Coper tries to say something, and then we arrive at the city, I just start to walk away, but Coper goes to me and says: Hey wait! I just want to thank you for saving me there at the Killer Plants hideout, I really appreciate it. So, let's stay here for the night and next we... -We? I punched him hard in the stomach, it won't cause enough damage to trigger the Wanted system but is enough to make him fall on the ground and curl in fetal position, growling in pain. -I want you to know something. I noticed that you tried to setup the plants to kill me so you could get the Anneal Blade, but you know what the worst part of it is? You could counted on me for help yet you preferred to backstab me, if you killed the prized plant instead of me, I would let you have it with no problems, hell, I could helped you on a second quest for your own Blade, but now I don't want nothing with you, and remember that this world doesn't reward people like you, so I won't punish you, but soon this world surely will. Farewell, Coper.

And then I start to walk away, to the next village at northeast, still a lot of grind to be done, and harder enemies will come by, but with this sword, the Anneal Blade at my hand, I'm sure I can handle it. Oh, that reminds me that I haven't gave the sword a good look since I got it, and my almost empty belly combined surely calls for a stop, so I sit at a rock, quickly grab and start to eat some of the pieces of meat I still had and put the Anneal Blade in my lap, and oh man, this really is no ordinary sword at all, whoever designed it wanted to make that clear, and the already tested efficacy in battle matches its beauty, all silver with a slender, very light design and, good length and a good grip, all I could ask from a sword. Well, I also noticed that I have some small cuts all over my body, but's it totally fine for such a brawl against the Killer Plants, let's put it back at my back and go on, this world still has many surprises left for me and I surely want, no, I WILL go through all of them, just wait Mr. Kayaba, because you're looking at the SAO champion, just you wait.


	6. Chapter 6: Suguha's Burden

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**7:32 PM, Akihabara Hospital, Tokyo, Japan, 06 of July, 2088;**

Suguha: -So doctor, how is he? -Well, we just finished a total checkup on him, to see if he might have something else, and in that regard, he is completely ok. Now, about his mental state.. When he arrived, his mind was quite agitated and his heartbeat was in a higher rate, but now both lowered considerably, close to a sleeping state. So he is fine by now, but we will constantly check up on him to prevent something bad happens. -Oh, that relieving to hear, so can I see him? -Now that we finished with him, yes, he is on that room on the right, now excuse me, more 31 patients came with the same issue that I have to attend and I believe there's more to come shortly. -Excuse me, this is my brother, can I have my moment with him? Oh, of course Ms... -Suguha. -Ms. Suguha, I was just finishing my regular check on him, and I'm about to take my leave for the other patients, if you excuse me... -Thank you for your care. -Oh, don't mind it, it's just my job to do it, Ms. Suguha. The door gently closes behind me as complete silence fills the room. It's all covered of white and a bit cramped here, but it's nice enough, and there he is, laying in the bed, with the NervGear still in his head, connected on his PC, brought from his room and put on a small table on the side of the bed. My brother, that before would divert all his attention to me when we are in the same room, now is reduced to this, a motionless body with its mind trapped in another world with no escape, and the fact that I actually helped him to get in this situation, because he wanted it so much, only makes the pain worse. It's hard for me to even talk to him, knowing he won't listen a single word of it, but I have to apologize, I should have protected him, but I failed.

-Hello, little brother, how are things going? You gave me quite a scare, did you know it? But I know it was not your fault, how would you, any of us, ever guess that what happened, happened? It was hard to get out of the job to take you from home into here, and that strict 30 minutes time limit only made things harder. Do you wanna know what happened today, with your big sis here? Hell, that what's happened, as soon that monster announced that he would be locking up the players inside SAO, the authorities arrived at our offices in no time and start demanding all kind of stuff to us, like we were the ones responsible for that, we just sold and make updates to their servers OS, that's all, past that, it's responsibility of their company to run it, thing they don't seem to have since they let everything in the hands of that psycho. *Sigh* Well, with that situation in my hands is no wonder that I was required to stay there and handle all that, but I simply couldn't since the moment I saw the horrible news, my duty was to help you, like always had, and it was quite possible you would be dead now if I had wasted like, half a hour more, like over 130 people died over the course of these first two hours of this.

But my brother is still alive, you are quite a fighter, you know it? Always was, I'll always remember when you stand against our grandpa, with only 10 years of age, because you didn't wanted to learn Kendo for the competitions and was willing to take the punishments until I put myself between you two and pledged to do it in your place. Despite my will and my good performance, he never got over it, always living in the past, for a tradition most of Japan was already letting behind, and died away from the rest of the family, bitter and disgruntled, never recognizing my achievements, then later on mom died, and I remember that i cried with no end until you up to me and said: -Please sister, don't cry, I hate to see you crying, then you went and wiped the tears from my face and hugged me tight, from that moment i noticed that you try to make me happy no matter the problems, and now, you are all the family I have left, and I would rather die than lost you, I... I love you so much Kazuto, you are the person I always aspired you to become, and I can't live without you, you complete me as I complete you, please stay strong down there, I know you can do it little brother, ok? And I will keep taking care of you up here, I'll have to take at least 3 days off my job to do so, I hope they'll understand and don't fire me, I can already see that is gonna be a long, tearful night...

I go to open the windows to get some fresh air going and to gaze at the night sky, so this is what it takes to become a successful, strong independent woman these days... *Sigh* Almost no family, no relations, only hard work, loss, suffering and the constant question in your mind if its worth it all. Well, when I see his smile, alongside all his care towards me, it almost makes it all worth it and is what gives me the determination to go on day after day. But I feel the that is something important lacking in my life, my own will, most of the things I've done in my life was because of someone else, the kendo championships was because of my grandfather, the university was because of my mom, and the TI career was because of my brother, never I chose my path depending entirely of my will, but a question remains, if I was to decide now, what would it be, and could I do it? I think only time will tell, since for now, I have the more pressing matter of keeping up with Kazuto, since we always was there for me and it's my time of retribution.


End file.
